


Memento Mori

by Jeenius_the_Dork



Series: Medium Wind Royal [2]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, Super Smash Brothers, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Aikoto propeganda, Brotherly Banter, Canon-Typical Themes of Suicide, Canon-Typical Violence, Ghosts, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Medium Wind (Linked Universe), Persona 3 Spoilers, Rewrite, Smash AU continuity, Spirits, Temporary Amnesia, Wind (Linked Universe)-centric, agent of chaos Wild, be suspicious of Time, because Persona 3, the construct and the character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:08:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28438155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeenius_the_Dork/pseuds/Jeenius_the_Dork
Summary: remember you're only mortal. unless of course you're the child embodiment of death.A spiritual rewrite of the original Medium Wind series though not is as it seems, now using the chapter system instead of being a dingus and keeping it a one-shot at a time.
Relationships: Wind (Linked Universe) & Pharos
Series: Medium Wind Royal [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1854805
Comments: 29
Kudos: 32





	1. Spirit of a Champion

_...ind. H -...W - d. W-k... U-. _

Wind groaned shielding his eyes from the bright light assaulting his eyes, as he was so rudely shaken awake. He was having a dream, though honestly he couldn’t exactly tell anyone what it was about. It was one of those dreams you know you’ve had before, giving a terrible sense of deja-vu despite not remembering the details.

He opened his eyes to tell off whichever idiot decided to wake him up so rudely, only to find it was the one person who would bite back with just as much energy. Groaning he let his arms drop to his side, silenting telling himself he should not kick Legend in the dick for waking him up.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“Sorry Sleeping Beauty but it’s time to pack up and go. We’re getting close to our destination remember? Or did you forget already?” Legend asked, extending his hand out to the Hero of Wind. Wind reluctantly took it, sitting up. Around them, the others were packing up their supplies on their own. Warriors tried his best to get Wolfie’s attention, despite the fact the over-sized dog was preoccupied with harassing Wild’s own belongings.

The sun was already high in the sky, burning down on the young hero. Despite being from an island he couldn’t get used to the deadly rays of the Gerudo Highlands quite yet.

…

That wasn’t right. The last thing Wind remembered was they were in a forest, or he was pretty sure it was a forest, somewhere in Time’s Hyrule? He didn’t remember all the details but he knew for a fact they shouldn’t be in Wild’s Hyrule in the slightest. Or...no that wasn’t right either. Yes he was in a forest, but Wind could have sworn that wasn’t the last place he’d been.

He, Wild and Time were...somewhere. Somewhere bright, with a lot of people...and. Wind’s thoughts were cut off by a stabbing pain in his head. The young hero flinched, rubbing his temples to sooth the sudden headache that sprung upon him. Legend’s smug grin faltered for the briefest of moments.

“You okay? You don’t look so good dude. We can head out later if you need us to.” Legend asked.

Wind waved off the older hero, “I’ll be fine. I probably just got up too quickly.” With no one paying attention to either of them, he sent Legend the biggest shit eating grin he could muster before whispering, “Who knew you were such a mother hen of a person.”

Legend spluttered indignantly, his face turning red in either embarrassment or rage. Hearing the commotion Hyrule turned over to them, only to begin laughing at Legend’s embarrassment. “Hey!! Did Wind call you team mom too?”

And thus his headache started to grow after Legend began screaming across camp at Hyrule. Sighing, Wind began to gather his things into his adventure pouch. If only he had those cool noise cancelling headphones that orange haired girl told him about before.

Frowning at the thought, Wind tried to remember who the orange haired girl was. Or what headphones were in the first place. The only girl he could think was like that, was a woman for the first thing, and a farmer for the other. Malon didn’t fit the description in his mind. He felt like if there ever had been such a person she would be a small gremlin-like person. He shook his head, pushing the thought to the back of his head again. It probably wasn’t important.

-

As they trekked through the desert, Wind was ever present of the dark shadow looming over him. Turning around, Wind faced Time with a blank expression. The oldest hero had shed most of his heavy armour, to keep as cool as he possibly could in the heat while still maintaining a practical amount of armour in case they were attacked by the Lizard and his crew of dastardly baddies. Sighing, Wind asked “Can I help you.”

“I understand if you don’t want to tell Legend, but are you feeling alright? You look more exhausted than usual.” Time asked. Wind fought the will to roll his eyes at Time. Of course team dad was asking him about his well-being. Soon would follow Older Brother 1 Warriors, designated healer Hyrule and finally overbearing idiot Twilight, who’d shown up at some point in between when Wolfie ‘mysteriously’ disappeared.

He felt like he’d been over this before but Twilight was terrible at keeping his secret about being the wolf. The wolf disappeared to scout ahead? Oh really? Where in this vast desert where you could see hundreds of feet ahead of you. There was no wolf in sight, Twilight? So where was the furry bastard? If no one else had caught onto this, Wind would punch every single one of them in the gut when they found out.

“It’s nothing don’t worry about it.” Wind grumbled.

Thinking back to his dreams, he knew Time was there for a fact. He remembered mentioning his name before despite something feeling terribly off about it. Was….was Time a child in his dream? If it was true then there was no doubt in his mind it was just a really over complicated dream.

Still, why did something seem so wrong?

Time watched Wind pull ahead to strike up a conversation about swords with Four. Something seemed off about the younger hero. He opened his other eyes for a moment, something he hadn’t actually done for quite a while. He didn’t want the others to see what secrets lay beneath his eye. 

His ‘godly’ eye, otherwise known as the bullshit he’d inherited from the Fierce Deity revealed something rather....odd...about his young friend. Circling around the boy was a mass of swirling black shadows. It followed him underneath his feet, dripped from his fingers and-. Time shut his eye. Perhaps it would have been better to leave things as they were. Wind would talk about it in time if he really wanted to. Even so it was no less worrying to Time. Was Wind one of the shadows? He wouldn’t know for sure for a while.

In a sense, it was a fair trade. Time saw a strange mass of shadows, while Wind would look upon the hero and find the spirits of a Goron, a Zora and a Deku Scrub. They followed the man on invisible red strings to his adventure pack on Epona’s back. Another larger red string pulsed from the bag, attached to the man itself, rather than a spirit. Wind never questioned him about it, but it was always a question that teetered on the tip of his tongue. The one reason he never actually asked was for the obvious reason. It would only raise more questions.

He hadn’t exactly told anyone about his ‘special’ powers yet. How he was able to see the spirits of the dead. And communicate with them if they tried. He wasn’t one for going up to the spirits, introducing himself and then having a fun party with a bunch of dead ghosts. If anything Wind saw it as a burden and wished he’d never had the power in the first place.

Wind wasn’t exactly sure when it started, they’d been around him for as long as he remembered. Even back when he was a child on Windfall Island, he would occasionally see the misty blue outlines of people he’d never met. He’d play with his new friends, and insisted they were there when Grandma finally found him after running all over the island with baby Aryll in her arms. Only once he was older, and started to recognize the forms of people he knew had died did he realize they were spirits.

It became useful when it came to the Spirit Train and seeing Zelda in her ghostly state, but other than that it was more of a bother to his very existence than a cool power he could use for good. Besides what good would it do. The one time he’d tried to help someone with their issues they called him a cursed child and hid in their house.

Fuck you too buddy.

His eyes drifted over his travel companions for a moment, as if to prove to himself this truly was a curse. On his left he would find the deceased Champions of Hyrule, an old man covered in a red robe obscuring most of his face, and an entire platoon of soldiers courtesy of Wild, Hyrule and Warriors. Just looking at Warriors sometimes as a normal person was enough to give him a headache. Between the shonen anime sparkles, his annoying smug expression and the platoon it was a wonder how he could spend more than five seconds around Warriors. 

On his right, there was a pretty girl with an angelic singing voice, a strange being that seemed like an amalgamation of them all he had no intention of ever approaching and Twilight’s stench. He tried to remain polite in his thoughts, but honestly he hated the fact Twilight never washed his smelly wolf skin pelt, which was already raising about 100 alarms in Wind’s brain. It just smelled....so bad. How did anyone deal with Twilight? Why did anyone deal with Twilight. Maybe Time out of obligation but regardless it was awful.

As the sun began to set, casting a pink glow in the sky the 9 weary heroes came upon the Gerudo Canyon Stable. Preoccupied with his eras Beedle, and the others left to their own devices Wind snuck off to pet the cute dogs that were hanging around outside the stable.

The Hylian Shiba stared up at Wind with sparkling red eyes, wagging its tail in excitement upon meeting a new friend. It twirled in a circle before flopping on its back, asking the young hero for bellyrubs no doubt. Wind crouched down, running his hands through the dog’s soft, white fur. They didn’t exactly have dogs in the Great Sea, but they were still his favourite animal of all the ones that he didn’t have. Cuccoos were the spawn of satan, Twi talked about his stupid goats too often for Wind to even care about the dreaded creatures anymore, and cats just weren’t as fun as the dogs they constantly met in stables. 

Suddenly the dog jumped back onto its feet and began growling at something behind Wind. With one hand resting on his sword, the boy spun around, only to find a familiar blue glow before him. Sighing, the boy took his hand off the Phantom Sword before going back to petting the dog until it had finally calmed down.

“Can I help you?” Wind asked, ignoring the fact he knew it sounded rude. Who were they going to tell? Wild? He’d like to see them try. The Champions had no actual way to communicate with their old friend anymore. Their powers no longer belonged to Wild. Why they hung around, he didn’t know nor did he care too much.

The Gerudo woman stood with her hands on her hips, an eyebrow raised at the attitude the boy gave to a former Chief of the Gerudo. “Well at least we know he can see us.” she muttered to herself.

“You wouldn’t be the first.” Wind sighed. Behind the Gerudo a blue Rito scoffed, nudging the large hulking boulder man.

“I like this one.” the bird said.

The fish princess far off the the back, dwarfed by her much taller companions remained silent. A somber smile etched onto her face as she regarded the child before her. He reminded her so much of her own Link when he’d been a child, albeit her’s was a tad more polite. However she couldn’t exactly blame this one, when they’d interrupted his time of rest. He was a sassy kid, but she sensed a thinly veiled pain. That perhaps of a lost childhood. Whatever the case, it wasn’t right to over analyze a situation she knew little to nothing about. Even so, she still wanted to protect the boy the best she could, if she could. If anything to just watch his back.

“Let me guess, you want me to pass on a message but keep it vague enough that I don’t seem like a total freak?” Wind asked. “I’ve been through this about a hundred times before. Don’t worry about it, I know the ropes.” he added upon seeing the surprised face on the Gerudo woman.

“Could you tell him his skills with a bow will never exceed mine?” the bird asked.

Wind sighed, nudging the dog off so it could enjoy itself rather than listen to the cacophony of stupid Wind was about to endure. “Yes. Because that is very conspicuous and will not raise any questions. At all.” he deadpanned.

“Excellent! I shall gleefully await his response.” Champion Revali exclaimed.

Was it possible to kill a ghost? To send someone to Super Hell? Gods Wind wished it was. Maybe it was better to just not interact at all. In the slightest. Other words that meant the exact same message. He wanted nothing to do with this, why was he living such a horrible reality.

“You realize I was being sarcastic right?” Wind deadpanned.   
  
“Of course, and I responded in the same fashion. Honestly I thought you were smarter than our own Link. Perhaps I was wrong, boy.” Revali replied. Suddenly Wind was greatly aware why Wild told stories about why no one liked Revali. He was already making it extremely difficult to hold a single conversation without wanting to strangle him alive. How was anyone supposed to fight with him?

“Are you always the actual worst? Geez and I thought Akechi was bad.” Wind grumbled.

There was a long pause in between Wind’s statement and the realization finally dawning on him. He had no idea who Akechi was. Or even why he spoke of such a name. The sass melted away even from the Rito Champion as he tried to grasp the situation with the other Champions. 

“Who’s Akechi?” the bird finally spoke up.

“And why do I feel like we’ve been here before?” the Gerudo finished.

Wind opened his mouth to respond, but found no viable answer for this strange event. He’d spent the whole day with a terrible sense of deja vu and it only got worse by the second. Akechi….Akechi...that wasn’t a Hylian name. And something about it sent a shiver down his spine, like he wasn’t supposed to trust someone of that name. The same way talking about Ganon seemed to send a wave of dread over everyone but Sky.

“You’re starting to remember. That’s good.” a voice lilted from the side.

Everything around him seemed to stop. The Champions froze mid-pose, mouths hanging half open in a sentence that would never reach anyone’s ears. The only ones with the power to move and speak were Wind and the mysterious voice.

Sitting on a rock was a boy with striking blue eyes, wearing strange black and white striped pajamas. He regarded Wind with an unsettling smile, and a casual wave. “I’ve been waiting for you to notice me. Hello.”

“Wh- who are you?!” Wind embarrassingly squeaked.

The boy let out a haunting laugh. In the blink of an eye he was standing in front of Wind with one hand extended. “You may call me Pharos. That was the name I was given before.”

“Okay….Pharos. What do you want with me? And what do you mean by remember?” Wind asked.

“To be honest, all I want is to be your friend. I haven’t had one of those in quite a while.” Pharos replied, offering his hand to Wind once again.

WInd continued to stare at the boy, refusing to take his hand. He had no idea who he was, or where he even came from, what he wanted with him. Wind was a kid not an idiot, he knew it was a terrible idea to trust random ghosts that appeared out of nowhere and had no connection to anyone he knew in the slightest. “ _ What _ am I starting to remember?” he repeated.

Sighing, the boy lowered his hand, snapping his fingers a fancily decorated blue folder appeared in his hands. “I understand you must have many questions that I don’t hold the answers to, Link Hero of Winds. You have quite the clean record I must say. Perhaps that’s why you were taken to this domain instead.” he flipped the folder over to reveal images that almost looked like a storybook, written in a language Wind couldn’t understand. The pictures depicted his fights with bosses he’d fought along the way in the Great Sea, Ganondorf and more. Where the boy had gotten these from Wind couldn’t understand, nor did he understand why he had them in the first place.

“You didn’t answer any of my questions, kid. What do you want with me?” he pressed.

“Me? As I said before, all I want is a friend. I would be more worried about those three you called Gods rather than myself.” Pharos replied, snapping the folder shut.

The three Gods? Did he mean the Golden Goddesses? He stared at Pharos with wide eyes, who only gave him another creepy smile as he hugged the folder close to his chest.

“Your audience with them will be coming soon. The Maternal Being sent me to prepare you. hence why you’re here rather than at that Mansion. You must be starting to remember how you’ve met these spirits before.” Pharos said, gesturing to the still frozen Champions.

Before he could ask any more questions, Pharos suddenly looked up towards the moon. It pulsed bright green for a moment before returning to normal. Pharos turned back to Wind with a somber look on his face. “It would seem as though my time here is done for now. I leave you to remember the rest of your journey that led you here.” Snapping his fingers the boy disappeared. His voice drifted through the cool night air “I eagerly await our next meeting.”

Time resumed where it led off. The Champions, with their shouts dying upon finding nothing where they last saw Phaors, returned their attention to Wind. Their expressions wavered before promptly acting as if nothing ever happened and it was all their imagination.

“So...about that message you wanted to pass on.” Wind said, grinning widely in hopes it would mask the confusion and worry in his soul.

“Right...just tell the little guy he’s doing a great job and we’re cheering him on!” Daruk shouted, flexing his rocky arms. 

Wind blinked for a moment, before nodding. “I can do that.”

-

Wild was having the time of his life. Beedle was selling him cool shit, he sold his own useless jewels and other materials he didn’t need for fat stacks of rupees. Life was good in the neighborhood. Soon he’d have enough money to buy more ancient arrows and he could scare Twilight with his SpOoKy TeChNoLoGy upon making a Lyncel disappear into thin air. 

As he plotted his greatest prank yet, Wind casually came back from playing with the dogs. He choked in surprise as the kid slapped his back. HARD. You could say it knocked the  _ wind  _ right out of him.

“Hey Wild you’re doing great. We all believe in you and stuff. Friendship is pogging also I might get smited by the gods soon. Anyways have a nice night doing whatever you were doing. See ya!” Wind quickly spoke, the words jumbling out of his mouth to form one sentence that was barely comprehensible.

As Wind walked into the stables and stared into the fire, Wild had to say. “Weird fucking kid.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A quick trip to Gerudo Town goes awry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man do i love Persona

To say Wind was unsettled by the foreboding message from a strange child in prison pajamas was a vast understatement. The parting words Pharos left Wind with floated in the back of his subconscious much longer than he was comfortable. Whoever the Maternal Being was, he was convinced wasn’t Hylia in the slightest. No one called the goddess the ‘Maternal Being’.

Even so, they were all still stuck in Gerudo Desert. Wild swore his business in Gerudo Town wouldn’t take long at all. He swore it on his life. So why were they still standing in the sweltering heat outside of a town that would physically threaten their very beings if they even so much as set an atom of their being into Gerudo Town? And where the ever loving shit was Wild?

Twilight was somewhere in between screaming and crying, leaning more towards the latter. Absolutely no one wanted to deal with Twilight when he was in one of his whiney moods. Maybe he wouldn’t be so hot if he wasn’t wearing his smelly wolfskin pelt still, among his other pieces of armour. In other words he was wearing everything he would usually wear and no one wanted to know why, nor did they care.

Hyrule nudged Time towards his descendant with a murderous glare. If anyone  _ had _ to deal with Twilight that duty would fall upon the man who helped birth him into this world. The choice was Time’s. He could either silence Twilight’s groaning, or he could suffer death by the hands of the Traveler himself. For good measure, Hyrule slowly dragged his finger across his throat, refusing to break eye contact with Time.

“Okay fuck this I’m going to find him.” Legend declared, brushing sand off his tunic.

“They’re not going to let you in, remember.” Warriors protested, muffled under the 5 feet of sand he was buried under. One too many infiltration attempts were the breaking point for the Gerudo guards. They did what was necessary and Warriors’ with his broken pride, decided he would forever lay under a layer of sand.

“Have fun! Don’t die!! Or do that would be funny!” Hyrule called, waving towards his predecessor.

For a moment, Legend considered throwing a rock at Hyrule, but decided against it remembering there were far more important things to do. Namely finding Wild and throwing a rock at him. Or throwing Wild in general. There was a good bottomless pit in that empty Yiga Clan Hideout. That would be a fun change of pace, especially after they were left to die in the desert.

The two Gerudo Guards stanced up in front of the entrance, blocking any space for the hero to enter through with their spears. “I thought we told you there were no voes allowed in the city.” the guard on the left spoke.

Legend wordlessly stared at the two guards. The three of them stood in the world’s most disengaging staring contest, no the universe’s most disengaging staring contest. NO! THE MULTIVERSE’S MOST DISENGAGING STARING CONTEST. And they continued staring. This went on for a good five minutes, Wind started to wonder if any of them even blinked. If they didn’t he would be very concerned. If they did, he was probably starting to hallucinate from being in the desert all day.

Have any of them drank water? Oh. Were they dying? Was this the reality of the situation? Were they just hallucinating Legend doing something stupid while they died, abandoned by one of their compainions of the desert? That seemed pretty on brand for Wild. Not because he thought his friends dying was funny, more because it was entirely possible Wild forgot they were even there and was having the time of his life in some other part of the desert, or elsewhere in Hyrule. Hylian teleportation was cool but also a curse upon them all.

Who was he kidding Wild would find Twilight dying in a desert funny.

The boys held their breaths in anticipation. Who would move first, what would be the first strike? Was Legend going to end up six feet under? Time would tell, and that time would come soon. Even the Champions, who’d stuck around for some reason, were on the edge of their invisible seats. Especially Revali, who seemed excited to see Legend get the snot kicked out of him.

Finally, Legend began to move. The Gerudo Guards squared up, ready to stab this little elf twink of they so needed to, and man did they hope they needed to. Reaching into his adventure pouch, Legend pulled out a small green orb attached to a gold chain, tossing it towards one of the Gerudo Guards. The Guard didn’t falter as she caught the orb in one hand, studying the strange thing before gasping.

“The pendant of Courage has been lost to the ages for generations. How did a voe like you come upon this treasure of the Royal Family?” the Guard demanded.

Wind suddenly got the sinking feeling they were about to get into some bullfuckery once again. Call it his stupid sense, like how there was someone out there with spidey senses. It triggered whenever he saw Legend do...something. Anything really. Legend was always the one who triggered the bullfuckery senses.

Legend smirked, posing like an anime character before twirling around in a circle. In a flash of blue and green magic, the Christmas colour themed hero disappeared, leaving in its wake a young woman nearly identical to Legend, in a pink and white fancy dress. She struck a finger to the sky, in yet another anime pose, upon her twirl coming to a stop.

“You thought it was my brother, but truly you were travelling with me! Princess Zelda the First!! Well I’m not actually the first. Our naming scheme is really weird. Also hi! Now can I go inside and find our friend?” the princess excitedly spoke. 

There really was only one thing he could possibly do at that moment. Wind took one look at the shrine Sky had taken refuge under. Rising to his feet he walked over to the Shrine and did the only thinkable thing. He bashed his head against the door. Repeatedly. He didn’t want to live in this reality anymore.

The last this he remembered before passing out were the Gerudo Guards rushing over to his side, strangely concerned for him despite being a voe. Maybe they didn’t really care about the rule, or maybe it was because someone was likely going to die, not by their hands, right outside of Gerudo Town and that looked bad on their hands. If it had been by their hands it was all fair game. No one would question.

Yup. Definitely.

-

“Distraction active! Let’s go Cap!!” Zelda whispered to Warriors, pulling him unceremoniously out of his sady grave. Trailing behind the princess Warriors had to wonder how in the world she pulled something like this off so quickly, and how she expected Wind to react accordingly. Besides that he wondered why she was even here considering they’d semi-recently gone to her own Hyrule only for Legend to have the snot kicked out of him for literally no reason at all.

“I was expecting more of a Metal Gear Solid to be honest, but okay. Also how can we guarantee I won’t be booted out the moment we get in, princess?” Warriors asked.

“Easy, I tell them that you’re a necessary asset to my safety and they’re not allowed to question because I’m from a different timeline and were I to be killed all time as we know it could potentially collapse!” Zelda replied cheerfully. In fact her smile only grew larger, and more worrying the more she spoke of their possible impending doom.

He shivered at the thought of angering the princess, after seeing what she was capable of. World domination if she so chose, but he didn’t want to bother suggesting such a thought to her. He knew if he did she likely would take over the world. And that was a world he didn’t want to live in.

“Come on scrublord, we have an idiot to find!” Zelda declared dragging Warriors into the town without any mercy.

As expected, his presence raised some questions, however upon seeing someone as fancily dressed as Zelda, and who had been yelling about how she was the princess, they decided it was best not to question especially if the guards had let them in. No one needed to know no one let them in.

Warriors didn’t think he should be touching Zelda’s hand, she was the princess and he was one stinky stinky soldier. But that didn’t seem to occur to Zelda at all while she dragged her new travel companion around town, asking quite literally anyone who moved if they’d seen Wild. The answer was always the same, no one had seen a feral agent of chaos besides Zelda herself. Nothing stopped Zelda’s relentlessly positive attitude. She thanked Gerudo, Zora and Goron alike, passing her way through the small town.

Finally they stood before the steps, leading into the Chieftain’s throne room. Honestly, Warriors had no idea what to call it. All he knew was he was not willing to lose his balls on this day, and begged Zelda to let him stay outside. The princess took his words into careful consideration. She stood as silent as she’d been before, with a thoughtful look on her face.

Moments later Warriors found himself being dragged up the steps, with all caution thrown to the wind. Internally Warriors sobbed. Why was this the life he was living.

“Halt. What business do you have with the Chieftain?” asked one of the guards.

“Hi! I’m a Princess Zelda of the past and this is my bodyguard Smelly McPoopypants. We wanted to ask Chief Riju if you’ve seen our friend, Link!” Zelda replied, pulling a crudely drawn image of Wild in blue crayon out of her dress. Warriors did a double take at the drawing, at what point did Zelda have time to draw that? And WHAT was that codename?

The princess left the young Chief and her guards utterly speechless. Whether from the boundless optimism or her forward methods to try and get what she wanted, or maybe even the mere declaration that she was a princess of the past. Whatever it was, they couldn’t speak. They wouldn’t move. No one dared to question the princess of the Past.

“Is…is that supposed to be Link?” Riju finally asked, studying the picture closer. 

“Yup! He said he was going into town to pick up some stuff and see some friends but it’s been like...10 hours and we haven’t seen one glimpse of him. I don’t think he’s even here, but Captain Buzzkill over here thinks he’s dead.” Zelda replied, elbowing Warriors and winking at him. He looked forward, sweating profusely from the glares Riju’s two bodyguards were giving him.

He soon realized they were completely capable of crushing him in their thighs, something he normally would have snerked at, but the threat of death in their very souls was enough to make Warriors want to cry to his mother. Did he even still have a mother? Who knows or cares. All he knew is he wanted to live and the possibility of that was dwindling so quickly he wondered if he should just drop dead on the spot.

“I’m sorry, princess, but we haven’t seen the hero in ages. And he certainly wasn’t here at any point today.” Riju replied. “Perhaps he went to go fight the Molduga again. Something has made it agitated recently, and we can’t really say what. You could go check that out if you wanted to.”

The grin on Zelda’s face spread. The pure unadulterated glee in her eyes at the prospect of fighting a giant fish monster couldn’t be contained. Should he have written his will before going on this adventure? The necessity of needing to do so was growing evermore. Warriors began to feel woozy. He couldn’t handle the princess anymore…

“Thanks for the help Chiefy! We’ll handle your fishy problem in a splash!!” Zelda called, grabbing onto Warriors hand once again and flying down the stairs. The tears finally pricked at the Captain’s eyes. Nothing in all his time in the army prepared him for something like this.

All two and a half weeks before he’d become the Hero of Hyrule.

-

In hindsight, maybe Wind should have slammed his head into the door harder. Completely incapacitate him for life. The first thing he woke up to was Zelda declaring they were going to fight a giant sandfish for Riju. No one had agreed to this besides Zelda, and yet they were all being tugged along for the ride.

The moon hung high in the sky by the time they’d arrived in what Zelda called the battle arena. Beneath the sand, Wind could see the rumbling path of sand the Molduga hid under. Twilight and Time stood with their bows ready, as far away from each other as Time could possibly get himself. Warriors, Four and Sky held their swords in hand. Meanwhile, himself and Hyrule sat on a large rock prepared to throw bombs and whatever magic Hyrule felt like at the creature. Zelda herself was a different story.

The princess wore a pair of sunglasses despite it being the dead of night, and Legend’s tunic once more. No one felt like asking her why. She clapped her hands together, gazing between all the heroes. “Are you ready?”

“I hope we all die.” Four deadpanned.

“Aww someone’s being a grumpy Gus because it’s past his bedtime huh? It’s okay we’ll be done this quickly, Shortie. Then you can get your sleepy sheepies!” Zelda cooed. There was nothing Four wanted more than to split apart and to never find all his pieces ever again.

Without warning, Hyrule suddenly pulled a bomb out of his pack and launched it into the sand. He screamed bloody murder, throwing four more bombs and for good measure sending off one of his fire spells.

Sadly his efforts did not kill them all, if that happened you wouldn’t be able to read this anymore, and I would have to find something better to write. Oh no. How tragic. How would I ever live? Yet here we are, the explosions sent the Molduga flying in the air.

Following Hyrule’s lead Time began screaming his own head off while he fired off as many elemental arrows as he could possibly muster towards the beast. Twilight barely got one arrow in before the creature fell to the ground helplessly. Patches of ice covered the Molduga’s little fins. It flailed on the ground, trying to shake off the frozen patches. With the beast preoccupied, Sky shugged and began his own screaming, jumping off the safety of his rock...before faceplanting onto the ground. He jumped up off the ground, shaking the sand out of his hair, telling himself no one saw anything.

In the corner of his eye Wind could see Zelda moving. She pumped her arms in the air, gliding around her own safety pillar. He could practically hear the sassy saxophones blaring in the background. Zelda was fucking dancing to help them. Was there nothing else that could make this worse?

With the Molduga still on the ground, incapacitated with Freezing effects, something no one had any idea of how could stop such a large fish creature. With a few pokes of the Four Sword, a kiss from Warriors stupid ugly sword and a few more pokes from Sky all while Time continued to fire arrows like a madman, the Molduga eventually exploded into thin air, leaving a bunch of gross shit no one wanted to touch and a few tresure chests they were afraid to open.

Still, something about the fight was a little  _ too _ easy. Not because someone didn’t know how to write an engaging fight scene, no the time will come in a different place and with a different character. The Molduga had fallen over and taken it all like a little baby. Besides, there didn’t seem to be anything bothering the fish.

Something wasn’t right. Wind didn’t know if he could call it Medium’s intuition or what but a chill ran up his spine that wasn’t the nightly desert air. The sighs of relief from his travel companions muffled while he continued to search through the desert. The moon lighting the desert up revealed nothing too out of the ordinary for miles. Only the occasional sleeping Lizalfo, a Bokoblin bonfire and a cloaked figure dual wielding shotguns emitting a bloody aura of death.

“You’re going to face another great ordeal tonight.” a familiar voice spoke.

Sitting behind him, swinging his feet over the edge was Pharos and his unsettling smile. “Hello, nice to see you again, Link.”

“Wait what do you mean again? Is that what that monster is?” Wind asked, pointing to the cloaked figure.

The boy nodded with a wistful smile on his face. “It seems as though The Reaper’s crusade stops for no one. I hope you’re prepared for the fight ahead.”

Wind stared at The Reaper. The creature radiated power he’d only felt once before. Ganondorf, who’d been the holder of the Triforce of Power for who knows how long, and he only beat with the help of Zelda radiated the same feeling. Sure there were eight of them, all with their own powers and all having defeated Ganondorf or some kind of god once before but even so. Whatever the Reaper was didn’t come from their world. Pharos wasn’t here for casual fun and conversation. He was here to warn them of their oncoming doom.

“Do you think we can win?” Wind asked, a crack echoed through the desert. The Reaper’s gun shredded through the entire camp of Bokoblins in one fell swoop. If that didn’t answer his question he didn’t know what Pharos could possibly say to reassure him.

“I knew one other who tried to fight the Reaper with the same level of power you have. His team only won by a margin.” Pharos replied. He stuck his hand out to Wind much like the other night. There was no trace of a smile on the boy’s face this time. “If you’ll allow me, I can help you and your friends. Call it a contract if you wish.”

Another crack much closer than the last ripped through the air. Below him he could hear the hushed worried calls of the others. The Reaper was quickly closing in upon them, he really didn’t have a lot of time to consider what he could do. Without hesitation Wind shook the boy’s hand. 

A voice in his head whispered.  _ Thou art I...and I am thou. Thou hast established a new bond… _ The whisper disappeared with the panicked shouting growing blow. The Reaper was close, one of its guns raised, pointing towards Zelda.

Above them, the sky seeped a sickly green glow once before. The moon hung above their heads, large as it had been the other night. Pharos smiled, at the moon holding the hand Wind shook close to his chest. “Your ordeal has already begun. Shall we get started?”

  
  



	3. *insert funny Persona 3 final boss meme here*

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Did you know the Arcana is the means by which all is revealed?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i recommend reading this chapter to One Winged Angel spongebob edition. no reason, i just think the video is funny.

In a distant land, many eons ago three goddesses created the land of Hyrule and all its inhabitants. Joined by the mortal goddess, they ruled over the country driving off the forces of darkness with great power. So it says in the Legends.

The Demon King could never best the goddess. Not even her champion, a mortal boy from the clouds, transcending time and space for the sake of the goddess. Placing a curse on the boy and the goddess, he doomed them to an eternity of endless fighting. That his malice would always return one day, somehow defeating the descendants of said hero and goddess.

The fate of the hero, however, had always been set in stone. Despite the three Golden and the mortal goddess being the ruling power of the land there was always another who would take both hero and malice incarnate alike. She who rules the night was the end of everything, her presence was inevitable no matter what world you came from.

Together with the Bringer of Death, the Night Queen would rise once again.

-

Wind would be a liar if he said he wasn't afraid of Ganondorf. A man so hellbent on revenge he held a grudge on a kid for hundreds of years to the point of fighting him. Granted Ganondorf was pretty chill otherwise but that wasn't exactly the point. For what it was worth, the man still tried to kill him. Even so he continued to fight on for Hyrule, the King of Red Lions, Zelda and the fate of the entire world.

Despite that, the rattling chains and gurgling speech of the bloodstained Reaper slam dunked Wind right into a vat of ice. His limbs refused to move even with the imminent danger presenting itself to Zelda. And the others looked no better than himself. 

No matter if they'd seen the wages of war, or were merely hunted down by the fiends of Ganon whenever they stepped outside. Nothing in their past could help them move past the bone chilling aura the Reaper laid in its wake.

The only one completely unphased by this all was Pharos. His shocking blue eyes bore into Wind's as the usual cryptic smile spread across his face. "Go on. Time runs short for you all, the end will be delivered soon." he said.

"What am I supposed to do?! I can't move!!" Wind exclaimed, attempting to wave his limbs around for emphasis. To his surprise his arms actually followed through, smacking himself in the face with his shield. 

With an amused sigh, Pharos snapped his fingers. A wave of...relief washed over the young hero while mobility finally returned to his legs. "You truly are a needy one. As of now you can move freely to command your allies. I wish you luck, your company has proven to be most interesting." the boy mused. With a wave the boy disappeared. To where Wind didn't have time to consider. 

Below a gunshot rang out. Wind rushed to the edge looking over to see if everyone was alright. Zelda, though visibly shaking, seemed otherwise alright. A smouldering hole not too far behind her revealed she either ducked out of the way or the Reaper purposefully missed his shot. 

The sigh of relief from Wind was extremely short lived. Before they knew it, the Reaper had pointed his gun to the sky, sending off another shot. Panic replaced his relief as a glowing purple circle of strange runes surrounded them all trapping them even more in place than before. Wind braced himself preparing for the worst...but nothing happened.

Was it...toying with them? Was Pharos toying with him? Wind honestly couldn't really understand however again he didn't have the time to really worry about it. The monster stared up at him with its one eye, as if it were waiting for him to act. Between Zelda, who was now being shielded by Sky, and the rest who still struggled to move Wind did what no one expected out of him.

They may have seen him as a child, and though they would deny it to their graves he could see in their eyes whenever someone jumped in the way of a rogue arrow, or whenever someone told him ‘I can handle it. Get some rest” they didn’t think he was as capable as them because he was a kid. And honestly, between all of them he was the only one who hadn’t been stupid and wasted all his supplied on a giant glorified fish who laid on the ground waiting to die. For once, just once, he was going to  _ force _ his fellow Links to follow  _ him. _

Hyrule, bless his soul, was out of magic and it was almost certain Time was in the same boat, so asking them to use any kind of magic skills was a stupid idea. Conserving their magic would be top priority for them, while providing support to Warriors and Twilight, the two much better suited people for all out assault. Sky would have been his first choice, with the Master Sword and all, but with him already protecting Zelda he didn’t want to change anything about that up. On top of that, as much as he despised Twilight’s whiney attitude towards Time and Wild, anyone getting bitch slapped with one of his sword swings would regret it for days. None of them knew anything about the Reaper, so throwing the hardest hitters at him was the best choice.

Of course it would be great if Wild were there but the fucker was missing, who knows where. Whenever Wild showed back up, if they even survived this, Wind was going to punch him in the nads so fucking hard.

The only one he had no idea what to do with was Four. his fighting style had always been confusing at best in his eyes. Four always said it was harmony in motion but to Wind it looked like four different people fighting for control all at the same time before saying “oh yes we’re about to die, never mind”. Maybe asking Four to make his own judgement was for the best.

Wind never realized he must have been strategizing out loud since Time had pulled a face like someone shat in his Butter Shoes and he’d just put his feet in them. Before the man could protest Wind pointed to the Reaper. “We don’t know what that thing is, or how strong it is. Do you really want to waste everyone’s already spent energy that you all threw away on a fish that was  _ waiting to be killed _ on something that terrifyingly large. We already struggle to fight a goddamn LIZARD,  _ I  _ won’t risk it on a humanoid death machine.”

“You should listen to him.” Zelda spoke up from behind Sky in the most uncharacteristically serious voice they’d heard from her so far. “That’s no normal monster. I can feel Death itself radiating out of it. Your physical attacks won’t deal as much damage to it as you expect it will. That monster is incredibly strong. Stronger than Ganon himself. However since you’ve all used too much magic already I agree you should use it as a last resort and pray that you can avoid the monster’s attacks.”

With the princess’s judgement in his favour there was no room to object. For a moment Wind wondered how the princess could sense this all on her own. Sure she was the holder of the Triforce of Wisdom and he had no idea what that really meant besides sometimes being able to shoot out light beams but that was about all he knew for certain. Maybe this would be useful…

Warriors, ever the cocky bastard, grinned at the monster readying his sword. He exchanged a secret look of understanding with Twilight before leaping towards the Reaper with his sword. The Reaper stood in place, as if allowing Warriors to slash at him with his sword. It regarded his blows with little interest before, by some strange force, Warriors felt repelled from the monster and ran back to his place.

It went like that around the entire circle. Everyone would run up to the Reaper, hit it a few times with something or other before feeling compelled to run back to their previous positions and wait. It seemed incredibly inefficient and stupid for a life or death situation but such was the life of having to be a JRPG protagonist for the next half an hour.

Despite not having a mouth, a chill ran down Wind’s spine, it felt like it was smiling at all of them. The Reaper raised its shotgun to the sky again, firing it off. Once again the strange purple runes enveloped them all, however unlike last time, Sky, Twilight and Warriors all fell to the ground instantly. Four and Hyrule shouted for their friends to get up (Hyrule in a less than polite way) however it fell onto deaf ears. 

Before any of them were able to process, another gunshot rang out. Wind barely had the time to brace himself for the worst. The worst was apparently getting blasted by something slicing through the air from 10 different directions. Yeah, they were right this wasn’t the fucking Lizard. This was infinitely  _ worse. _ Between the feeling like he’d been stabbed 100 times in the chest and the fact his arms were already numbing from whatever the fuck the Reaper just threw at them to the bright teal smoke speeing out of his unconscious friends bodies, Wind wondered how the hell Pharos’s friend had even dealt with this thing to begin with.

HIs plan was solid, more than solid. His plan had honestly been great. No one really expected this guy to have an insta-kill move, no one could have really predicted it. So there was no way he was going to take Time’s temper tantrum in the near future.

“What do we do now Leader?” Hyrule yelled from below. The joking malice he was so used to had since disappeared from the Travelling hero.

“Protect Zelda, Twi, Sky and War. And don’t die.” Wind replied. It was barely a plan but they worked more with a lot less. None of them were actually going to die here. Sky, War and Twi were just unconscious.    
  
That’s what he was going to tell himself at least.

“How much magic do you have left?” Wind asked, pulling the Wind Waker out of his pouch. 

Hyrule narrowed his eyes at the little wand, utterly lost. “Probably enough for a Fire spell but that’s about as strong as it goes. Would it be better for healing them or…” he gestured to the three laying on the ground.

“Do it.” Wind replied. Whether it was out of an act of desperation, or he legitimately thought it would work the way he expected it to Wind would never be able to say. It was a plan for sure, and it sure beat standing around and dying.

Wearily the Traveler cast his fire spell as Wind conducted the wind. A vortex of fire surrounded the Reaper, like it was some Pokemon grade bullshit, trapping the Shadow inside. Both Wind and Hyrule stood there, slack jawed, surprised such a thing actually worked. Though off to the side Zelda didn’t look so relieved. 

Time’s hand went into his own pouch, reaching for that wooden monstrosity he promised he’d never use around these boys. His last resort would leave a path of destruction in their wake but if the time called for it he would deal with the consequences later.

The monster let out an ungodly, earth shaking roar. A burst of wind sent the fire out in a terrible AOE of destruction, disappearing into the night. It’s eyes locked onto Four, shooting forward as the short hero just laughed. “I’m so fucked.”

Four was thrown into the abyss of the night, though not without a faraway muffled thud against some rock or another. A pained wheeze escaped Wind’s mouth as he considered Four’s statement. Yeah they were fucked. They were absolutely going to die here. It was set in stone now. Nothing would be able to save them.

His eyes drifted to Time, who probably had some sort of ‘I told you so’ plan working through his large brain. He found the man standing with a mask bearing a striking resemblance to the old hero’s face in his hands. The Reaper’s gun raised once again, though not to the sky. Time fumbled to get the mask as close to his face as possible, as another gunshot rang out. An overwhelming sense of dread washed over Wind as he watched the mask shatter in Time’s hands, the red string connecting it to Time himself frayed, and the man began to scream bloody murder.

-

Meanwhile, in another realm Pharos watched the scene with five others. Three women bathed in gold, a young blonde woman and the Maternal Being. After being sealed for so long her form was far more human than the last time they met. He cringed as the Old Man dropped to the ground, clutching his head screaming, before looking back up at Nyx.

“Are you sure we can’t intervene? That isn’t part of his memories in the slightest.” Pharos asked.

“Pharos, my child, you and I both know well it’s not that we can’t intervene. Humanity has to take control of their own hardships without the intervention of gods.” Nyx replied softly. “Remember what happened the last time we gods intervened with the fate of humans.”

“You say that as if we are Nyarlathotep and Philemon. This isn’t a matter of the potential of humans. Part of their world has been corrupted by our own. They don’t hold the same power as He did or any of the ones before Him.” Pharos argued. “I may be the avatar of Death but this isn’t an ordeal caused by their people calling you so with all due respect, mother, I think it’s unfair to let them die.”

“The boy is already dead, Pharos.” the woman sighed. “I understand your time being human has changed you however you more than anyone know Death can’t be avoided.”

The boy flickered. For a moment standing before them wasn’t a child in prison clothes, rather a young man with a fluttering yellow scarf. His eyes never left the Maternal Being as he asked her, “If that’s true then how is Minato-kun alive?”

Taking a step towards the women, the young man continued. “That boy gave his life to seal both of us away from the world but now we walk on the Earth once again. What will that mean for us? The Velvet woman has fought off Erebus for now, but with the Great Seal being gone, the Fall is likely imminent once more. Unless you’re suggesting we let this child die to become the temporary seal until Minato-kun reverts whatever happened to our world back to normal what other reason do we have not to intervene now?” 

“So this is about the Messiah then. Not the child?” Nyx questioned.

The boy in stripes went silent, casting his gaze down to the floor. “The world will be set right once again once that doctor’s fake reality is destroyed. Don’t use this child as a substitute for Minato-kun...I don’t want to have to ask him to kill me.”

The Night Queen had fallen silent, the resolve of the young Death avatar couldn’t be shaken easily after his time spent with the Messiah. In a way, it wasn’t a surprise, while he spent time as Ryoji Mochizuki he had also taken the role as the Fortune Arcana. WIth Pharos taking fate into his own hands, she supposed it would be for the best. And yet, at the same time he was acting out of pure impulse. No matter how hard they both tried, one day the Great Seal would weaken, humanity would always call to her and they would all touch death some day.

That was the Answer to life after all.

A sparkle of gold caught both Nyx and Pharos’ eye. It hadn’t come from the other four being in the plane, Hylia and the Golden Goddesses had yet to speak during their ordeal. What appeared was a small golden butterfly drifting towards Pharos. It circled around the child, leaving a trail of glittering dust before continuing to the Golden Goddesses. The butterfly circled between the three of them, as if it was trying to decipher which was which, before finally settling on the flower woven headdress of Farore. 

Upon settling on the Goddess the butterfly looked as if it belonged on her the entire time. But somehow Pharos knew better than that. The gentle flapping of the butterfly’s wings under the Goddess’s glow showed a brilliant velvet blue underneath the original gold of the butterfly. 

Pharos cocked his head to the butterfly. The little insect was awfully familiar, and he couldn’t place where. A soft whisper drifted through the room in an unfamiliar voice, “The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed, young one. Go now, the Windswept Pirate needs you.”

-

Wind was panicking. Between literally every single one of the other heroes falling to this terrifying creature, and all the other bullshit that was advancing towards him he wasn’t exactly dealing with it so well. Did he mention the Lizard had somehow shown up and found them, and his army of stupid strong Bokoblins were coming to the Reaper party? No he didn’t, well now you know. 

Everything is shit and nothing will make this better.

Despite all odds, Four was still...alive from being thrown away. You couldn’t really say it was  _ Four _ though, the four parts of him had come back in a fit of defiant rage, though it wasn’t that much help. Even further subverting expectation, Blue found himself oddly weak to fire attacks, which the reaper was sending a lot of, even though he liked to pride himself as a pyromaniac. Ice was fine though, he could take a hit from ice. Red on the other hand, would get completely curbstomped and that wasn’t fun. Then again nothing about this was fun. Why would you ever consider the Reaper to be fun in Persona 3 continuity? 

The Reaper sent out another stupidly strong gust of wind at them. Time, laying on the ground from the utter pain that was part of his soul dying, screamed once again, though it sounded a lot more like rage. He couldn’t get up, his old man bones and half dead soul wouldn’t allow it. Garudyne’s really the least of his worries. The mask he’d tried to put on scattered around him in sad pathetic shards of wood.

Wild was still missing. At this point Wind decided it was entirely by choice and they’d all been bamboozled into thinking he was in Gerudo town. Whatever, if they even survived he could destroy Wild later. The Reaper raised its shotgun to the sky again, Wind wanted to sob into the sand. They were all going to die and it was entirely on Wild’s hands now. He better be happy.

The cracking of the Reaper’s gun never went off. Its one bloody eyeball rested upon something near Wind, lowering its weapon. Whipping to the side, Wind found Pharos sitting on the rock, kicking his feet back and forth with a creepy smile on his face. “Hello again, Sudou-san. Don’t you think you’ve caused enough trouble for one night?”

He could only watch with morbid curiosity as the Reaper stanced up, ignoring Wind himself and whichever of his foolish friends who still wanted to fight. Pharos disregarded the Reaper’s to fight, stretching his arm out to Wind. In the boy’s hand floated a strange card bathed in blue flames. The spinning card depicted a man dancing dangerously close to the edge of a cliff, with a dog at his feet. The number 0 printed brightly on the bottom of the card. Pharos’ eyes glowed an otherworldly blue as he spoke, “The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate... Entrusting his future to the cards, man clings to a dim hope.”

His legs began moving towards the boy on their own. The Hero of Wind slowly trudged over to Pharos, with a hand stretched out towards the card. He didn’t know why, nor did he feel like he wanted to question why the card itself was important. It was far more than a simple piece of paper, the power that flowed out of it was...limitless. The card had the potential for more than anything Wind had ever seen before. The Master Sword, the Triforce, it was all dwarfed by a mere card. 

He took the glowing card in his hands. A serene wave of warmth passed through Wind like the gentle caress of a butterfly’s wings. It spun in his hands once before dissolving into bright sapphire embers into the night. Pharos’ smile softened. “The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed. The silent voice within one’s heart whispers the most profound wisdom. This marks the true beginning of your journey. With the power you’ve been granted you have far better odds at survival.”

“I take it you’re going to disappear now? I’ve started to notice the trend.” Wind replied, unsure of how to respond to this Arcana business. If the Arcana was some kind of old Hylian tradition from the past he definitely wouldn’t know anything about it.

The boy chuckled, a soft wind danced around them while the Reaper roared in the distance. “Don’t worry yourself this time. I’ve found my own resolve to fight.” He refused to elaborate beyond that. For the time being, Wind wouldn’t know about the blue haired boy and his sacrifice for humanity, and perhaps it was better that way. Perhaps one day, one day the child of wind would know.

The Reaper had gone dangerously still upon Pharos’ return. For a monster bent on the total destruction of his friends and allies it was more than off putting to see it just...stop. It almost looked, scared of the child. Who only responded with the usual blank smile.

“There’s more to the child than you think, little sailor.” Urbosa whispered in Wind’s ear. When had the Champions appeared? Wild wasn’t anywhere near by....that he knew of, which was a little weird to say the least. Not that he was really going to complain about it. And to be honest Wind could already figure that out for himself. A weird kid that appeared to warn him about oncoming doom wasn’t exactly the most normal event in anyone’s life yet somehow it wasn’t the weirdest in Wind’s.

One of the Reaper’s pistols raised towards Pharos. The strange boy, as unphased as ever, simply cocked his head to the side. “Really? Is that how you’re going to play this out? You should already know you won’t be able to kill me.” The boy flickered. Standing in his place shifted between a young man with a bright yellow scarf, and a figure in a flowing tattered, black cloak. Wind scrubbed his eyes, they must have been playing tricks on him. When his vision cleared, the small boy was the only one there.

The monster roared, pointing its other pistol at Wind. On the ground someone shouted, he wasn’t paying too much attention who. Their feeble attempts to slay the Reaper had clearly bored the creature into not even considering them threats anymore. They were the heroes of Courage, this was honestly quite sad for the ones who’d been trusted by the Goddess to protect the land. Then again, Pharos had mentioned their chances of winning were close to none. Whoever Pharos’ friend was clearly needed to be applauded for their efforts...if he was even able to meet them. 

Pharos sighed, shaking his head. “I suppose the time for talk has ended. It matters not who you are, Death awaits you.” He turned to the hero of Wind, as a suffocating black cloud pulsed from Pharos’ feet. “You’ve been graciously gifted a new power. Don’t waste it.”

Wind thought of the card that had fallen into his hands. Pharos had mentioned it was his new power more than once, and while he didn’t really know what it meant or what it even was, he knew the time for questioning would come later. If he wanted to ensure everyone’s survival, given everyone wasn’t already dead, he’d have to use it. Whatever it took.

_ “I’ve been awaiting our reunion, young one.”  _ The voice who spoke was a far too familiar one. For a moment, Wind almost forgot about the terrifying creature who was trying to kill him. Instead he had memories of a man stuck under the sea, after just slaying the king of Evil. As well as a voice similar to his own. The two voices mixed together in an echo that would normally be grating to the ears, but even so Wind was compelled to listen. “ _ The future you yearn for falls from your grasps. If it’s truly the future you want, then you must take it back for yourself.” _

He was in a white room. He knew he was supposed to be fighting yet it hadn’t set in that he should be fighting for his life. The voices of other vaguely familiar people shouted while the dangerous presence loomed over them. A tense young man dressed in a fancy black tailcoat, he assumed around Legend or Hyrule’s age, covering his face with a white domino mask stood across from him. The blue cinders fell from the man’s mask, having just summoned this costume he wore. Danger continued to approach the two. The fancy man opened his mouth to shout something, but as the words left his mouth Wind found he couldn’t hear anything. 

Who was that boy? Wind knew he was missing something extremely important now more than ever. And somehow, he knew the fancily dressed boy was at the root of it all.

_ I am thou...thou art I. From the sea of thy soul I come forth. _

-

Four was doing his best to keep the rest of his friends alive. After scuttling his way back to the battlefield he looked between everyone who were all barely clinging onto life. In an effort to make the job easier, and faster he’d finally split into four and the colour-coded Links ran off to shove healing potions down their unconscious allies throats. Truth be told, it was the worst idea ever since Hyrule was already pretty pissed that he was nearly bestes by a gun toting, one eyed freak of nature, so Vio’s healing only made the Traveler punch him in the gut upon waking up. As a show of “good faith” the hero of Hyrule “apologized” despite how utterly insincere it sounded. The rest had varying degrees of unenthusiastic thanks, except for Time.

Time, no matter what potion, or what healing spell was thrown at him wouldn’t wake up after the destruction of his mask. Their self proclaimed leader lay in the sand, unmoving. It was a matter that could be dealt with later. Twilight, Warriors and Sky had all been tasked with keeping their leader safe despite only one being necessary considering the Reaper wanted nothing to do with them anymore.

In the distance a cloud approached. It was the Lizard who wanted to join the murder party. Of course there would be no glory for the Lizard since the Reaper wiped the floor with them all but there was always hope it could vibe check at least one of them. Namely Warriors since the poor bastard is public enemy number 1 of the Lizard.

Right, right. You want to know about the “I am thou” stuff right? Because otherwise the pacing would be jacked as shit. Do not worry, that was about to come up. Sit back in your seats and grab your popcorn because here we go.

The night sky lit up with a blazing blue pyre. Green, and the other aspects of himself had all been very used to using fire. Red especially, it was the boy’s preferred aspect, and even so there was nothing comparable in their frame of reference for the fire being produced by the strange blue flames.

Out of the fire flew a metallic humanoid being wearing a dragon mask. A royal blue waistcoat billowed in the wind, while the being gently floated down behind Wind. It twirled a sail in circles, likely for a show of dramatic flair, before jamming it into the floating red boat it stood upon. The strange being’s eyes shone like the crackling lightning of a storm, and it was clear. You shouldn’t fuck with this guy.

The rest of the night went by like a blue for everyone but Wind. Between the two large monstrous beings clashing, and only one of them seeming trustworthy it was hard to wrap their heads around a kaiju battle despite knowing full well they were harnessing the power of the gods on the daily whenever they picked up the Master Sword. Even so, the Master Sword had been utterly useless so they could only watch in pure awe as the kid they hardly ever paid mind to stood his ground against the bloody demon dinosaur from hell.

_ Show the strength of thy heart to grasp the future you’ve so desperately fought for already. My power is yours, hero of Wind. _

Pharos almost laughed at the words of Wind’s Persona. Perhaps it was the other soul within the boy’s Persona speaking. Though the irony behind it wasn’t lost. The boy’s future was fleeting, though he did have to praise Wind for trying. 

As Wind traded blows with the Reaper, Pharos could hear a faint voice calling to him. The monotonous familiar voice, nearly identical to his own, called out to him. It was too far away to fully hear what the voice was saying, yet even so there was something comforting about it. Even further he heard a girl’s voice. Someone both familiar and completely foreign to him, like he knew who she was while not knowing her at all. He didn’t know how to describe it entirely, but it reminded him of the colour orange.

The voices grew louder, they grew closer. The whispers reached his ears repeating on an endless loop. “Go on…” The same words he had once spoken to them.

When the blinding bright light finally dimmed down, Four noticed another monster? Demon? Whatever those things were, he noticed the one surrounded by coffins. Where it came from he’d never be able to tell, though judging by the lack of reaction they received out of Wind it was entirely possible the new monster came from him. Four shuddered at the thought. Though the newcomer was also intent on completely decimating the Reaper, the imagery behind it was unsettling. A coffin monster, no matter how helpful, never boded well. Not that he ever spent time with coffin monsters before.

To his surprise, the coffin monster along with the pirate ghost thing Wind controlled, made much quicker work of the bloody one than all 8 of them combined. He didn’t know how to feel about that. Was it good? Was it bad? Well, it was definitely bad considering their Leader may or may not be dead. But what happened afterwards, not even Vio could figure out.

As the vibrant moon began to shrink, the monster finally fell, disappearing in a cloud of red and black fog. Once the moon had finally returned to its normal state, was when the young hero of Wind finally fell to the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh yeah Time's totally dead


	4. Until my life is exhausted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> >close your eyes  
>  ...

He woke up the next morning tired as he had every other morning for the past month. Despite promising to relax, he found that with his schedule it was just impossible. On top of exams, and all his duties with clubs and Student Council, he just never had any time to relax with friends. Thankfully now that those exams were over, he didn’t have to worry about it anymore. 

He threw on his uniform jacket, not even bothering to tie the bow around his neck, staring into the mirror over the sink. Staring back at him was his one uncovered grey eye, and a boy far more exhausted than he had any right to be falling asleep so early last night. Sighing he turned on the sink, flinching when the water spluttered out of the tap from lack of use. He couldn’t remember the last time he used the sink in his room, now that he thought about it.

Shaking his head he splashed some cold water on his face. It did little good to wake him up, but he guessed he looked less like shit than before. Not that he really ever cared anyways, Yukari was always the one calling him the “pretty boy”. 

There was a knock on his door. “Hey it’s me. You almost ready? Today’s graduation day and we don’t want to be late for the ceremony.” Yukari called on the other side. Sparing one last glance to the mirror, he swung the door open. 

“You feeling okay? You look kind of pale. Are you sick?” she asked, her face scrunched up as she stared at his own for an uncomfortably long amount of time. In response, he shrugged before gesturing towards the stairs with one hand, the other finding its way into his pocket per the usual.

“Not in a mood to talk today? I get that. I’ll make sure to keep Junpei off your back, kay?” Yukari said with a smile. He didn’t understand why Yukari was so nice to him, besides living in the same dorm and being in the same class they didn’t have anything in common that he could remember. He couldn’t remember how they became friends in the first place, considering how antisocial he was all the time it was a wonder he somehow made friends with one of the most popular girls at Gekkoukan.

Realizing he’d been standing and staring off into space for a while, he nodded to his fellow second year before heading for the stairs. Something didn’t feel quite right. He wasn’t remembering Yukari...or anything quite right anymore. He wanted to wave it off as being too tired to remember, or care but he couldn’t shake off the strange feeling at all. The feeling like he almost wasn’t even himself.

In the lobby, Junpei was waiting for them. Junepi waved excitedly towards him, either not taking notice of how exhausted he was, or choosing to not make any mention of it at all. Despite her best efforts Yukari couldn’t fend off their excitable classmate, though their conversation did quickly derail into the amount of times Junpei could call Yukari cute and scary all in the same breath. Maybe he was just imagining things being off. He was just tired.

The train ride to school was rough, but at this point they didn’t know who it was worse for. On one hand he was tripping over his own feet every time the train jerked ever so slightly faster. Or maybe it was Junpei and Yukari who had it worse here. Despite how well Junpei kept it together, and was joking about how uncoordinated he was, despite being a kendo champ, the three of them knew the fact he could barely stand up straight wasn’t right. He insisted he would try to sleep off whatever was bothering him after the graduation ceremony and both Yukari and Junpei reluctantly took it for what it was.

“It’s crazy to think we’ll be the seniors next year, huh? It seems all they do is  _ study.  _ Talk about boring.” Junpei groaned, as they passed through the school gates. “You think that’s gonna be us next year?”

Considering there wasn’t much about the year he could particularly remember, he just had to shrug in return. The most noteworthy, he  _ guessed, _ was that time Junpei tried to drag him into a hot springs on the school trip so they could spy on some girls. Though...now that he thought about it, he felt like he was forgetting someone important to him. He didn’t know who, or why, but a wave of melancholy washed over him at the thought of a yellow scarf.

“Studying would actually do you some good, Junpei. I mean with your grades this year it should be all you’re doing.” Yukari scoffed in the background, as if her grades were much better than Junpei’s.

As Yukari and Junpei argued over the state of their grades, he could feel someone staring at them. Almost everyone else who’d been on their train rushed inside the school to make sure they weren’t late for the graduation ceremony so it was just himself, Junpei and Yukari from what he understood. Looking around the courtyard he finally noticed a girl wearing large headphones over her short blonde hair, staring at them. Or, maybe not so much as the three of them, but himself.

He waved towards the girl, trying to remember what her name was, despite the uneasiness that came over him knowing she was staring directly at him the whole time. Soon Yukari and Junpei followed his gaze, noticing the strange blonde girl as well.

“Hey you know that girl? She’s kinda cute huh?” Junpei asked.   
  
“Junpei she lives in the same dorm as us, how do you not recognize…” Yukari trailed off, clearly in the same boat as them. He was grasping at his own straws, trying to remember even the people he had club activities with. A stand out was his chilly senpai, Ms Student Council President herself, Mitsuru Kirijo. And...Kenji. Out of all people he  _ could _ remember why did it have to be that weirdo?

“Geez and you’re giving  _ me _ a hard time.” Junpei grumbled. “I guess it’s not that surprising with everyone in the dorms coming and going. Even Akihiko-senpai’s moving out.”

“Well yeah. All the graduates are moving out. Even Kirijo-senpai. You were in Student Council with her right?” Yukari asked. He nodded, without that much to add. Mitsuru was a serious no nonsense leader and he could see why she was rightfully Student Council President, but her upbringing did make her super hard to approach. Yukari didn’t really need to know that, especially with the not so subtle sour tone to her voice upon mentioning the Kirijos.

Despite everything, the girl was still standing there watching him without any signs of really stopping. Maybe she just...didn’t notice? Or maybe it was wishful thinking on his end. Still. What was she staring at them for? Should he say something to her?

As if remembering the girl was still there, Yukari waved towards her. “Hey, you looking at us? Is something wrong?”

The girl finally seemed to react to them. Snapping her eyes towards the ground she replied in a robotic voice, “It’s nothing.” The next thing they knew, the girl was running off towards the school. It was strange, stranger than the whole part where she just stared at them for a solid five minutes.

“Come on, we should hurry up. The ceremony is going to start soon.” Yukari said, shaking off her confusion.

Slowly they walked towards the school entrance. He supposed he never really took the time to appreciate how pretty the school actually was. Not that he ever had much of a chance to do so. He’d always been so busy that he never admired the exterior of the school. The cherry blossom trees were in full bloom, sending petals flying through the spring air. 

_ Some time ago, he’d promised someone to see the full view of Port Island from the roof. They all did. The same blonde girl from before and... _

He winced as his head stabbed in pain. What was he forgetting? The thought of trying to slog through his memories made him overwhelmingly tired. His eyes felt heavier than before, but he shrugged it off. Mitsuru-senpai would execute him if he fell asleep during her speech.

...Why did he…?

“Hey….Yukatan?” Junpei asked.

“Hmm? What is it?” she asked.   
  


“Do you...ah never mind. It’s nothing.” Junpei hesitated before giving up all together.

“Aww come on don’t give me that.” she teased, poking at Junpei’s arm.

“It’s just,” he paused again thinking his words over carefully. “I don’t really remember how we became friends.”

Yukari paused, he had to be careful as to not stumble into her by accident. She seemed lost in thought for a moment, not that he could really blame her. “I don’t really remember either. We are in the same class, and live in the same dorm so it was probably just bound to happen anyways. Like with our Leader.” she replied, gesturing towards him.

His mouth opened as he frowned at the statement. What did she mean by Leader? Junpei’s own face screwed up in confusion considering the name ‘Leader’. They decided to drop it without much thought, Yukari had no explanation for it at all.

Once inside the school he noticed the blonde girl from before not so stealthily hiding behind the stairs, once again watching them. Junpei and Yukari whispered to each other about Featherman, rushing to towards the auditorium. He stood in the hallway staring back at the blonde girl, before she vanished up the steps. He supposed he’d only find out what her deal was if he followed her, so follow her he did.

The higher he climbed the more tired he felt. He never noticed when he was with Yukari or Junpei, though alone to his own thoughts he was hyper aware of how heavy his legs felt. Every step upwards felt like gravity weighed upon his entire body pushing him to the ground. Halfway to the third floor was when he relied on the handrail to remain standing. He wanted nothing more than to just lay down on the stairs and sleep but, there was something he was supposed to do. All of them were supposed to do something. Who all of them were, he couldn’t say at all.

He heaved a heavy sigh, looking up towards the roof doors. They seemed so close, and yet still so far. The sun shone through the windows, inviting the exhausted boy upwards once more. He thought of the first time he’d been on the school roof. He could vaguely remember snow falling around them, as they took in the sights of the sleeping city. Vaguely, he thought of his friends breaking into the school during the school holidays, making a promise to meet again during the spring.

The friends he’d made over the course of the school year were irreplaceable, well. Most of them. Kenji and those may have been but people like Junepi and Yukari weren’t. Or maybe he was just being too mean to Kenji, they were still friends after all. Without every single one of them they wouldn’t have overcome the ordeal last January. Last January when…

His eyes widened as the faint memory of a large winged demon descended upon them. The fought for their lives, and for the sake of everyone else’s despite the fact no one besides them would ever know what happened. But even then, despite everything. They couldn’t stop it without a miracle. They’d been told the Fall could have been prevented if there were more like them.

And thus he’d learned the answer to life’s greatest question. What it really meant to live. And with that came the miracle he performed to protect everyone…

He knew why he was so tired. He wasn’t going to dwell upon it. For their sake more than his own. His feet dragged up the final flight of stairs. Nothing, not even his clouding vision would stop him from breaking the promise he’d made to Aigis and the rest of SEES. Finally at the top of the stairs, he pushed the metal doors open and stepped onto the roof.

The sun was warm on his skin. A gentle breeze waved his bangs out of his eyes, as if inviting him to take in the sights for a final time. On the other side of the roof, staring off towards the bay was Aigis herself. The android turned around, smiling towards him. It was strange how Aigis herself was a machine, and yet she was still more human than some other people he knew. Not that he wanted to think about the Chairman at such a time. Just the thought alone of how far Aigis had come since they met back during the summer was enough to ease a smile onto his own face.

His footsteps felt lighter with the promise of being with his friend just beyond his grasp. His feet carried him towards Aigis, who’d begun to make her way towards him as well. Mere steps away from her, his steps faltered. Aigis ran forwards catching him in her arms. The android hugged him close, as she whispered, “We meet again-” His name sounded muffled coming from her mouth, as if it wasn’t actually his own. 

Did he remember his own name? No that was silly of course he did. It was M̶̝̖͉͎̪̩̾́̓͛͌̆̚̕͝͝͝í̷̱̭̲͖͔͚̠̲̘̣͓̏̉̅̾̈̈́̋̉̾̈͌͜͝͝͝ň̵̡͕̜͍̰̰͖̙̳̭̝͙̞̣̇̿̏͜͠ạ̶̝̗̇͊͐̽͐͆̄̌̑̓͆͘͘͝t̶̼̰̀̎̈́̋͊̄̈́̓̓̇͘o̵̼͍̠̟̥̠̼͍͍̐̇ ̶̛̝̪̃̒͊͒͐͐̈́͛̉̉̉̚̚Ą̵̤̼̭̗̪̰͕̰̘͊̍̅̅̈́͛͝r̴̡̯̪͎͍͙̥͒̽̊̓̃̈̍̔́̚i̷͇̮̺͕̱̓͋̆̉̾͑͌̇͆̾͛̍͒̐͝ͅs̷̡̧̠̜̝̘̲͉̫̜̫͍͕͓͎̩̉̆̾̐̌͑͗ͅa̷̢̞͙̳͕̝̗̥̺̠̫̣̤͑͑̿͐́̉͑͑͛̀̃͋͘ṯ̵̨̳̑̂́͋̓̈́̇̏̐̄̑͘o̵͉͓̦͙̱̗̘̟̻̫͎͉͔̪͚̅͋̇̆. He’d never forget that...right?

Aigis carefully led him towards one of the benches, sitting him down before taking place beside him. They silently sat together taking in the view for a minute. The year hadn’t been as bad as he originally expected. Aside from everything that happened to them during the Dark Hour. For the first time in a long time, he’d found people he actually cared about, and people that didn’t just pity him for his dead parents. Even if Junpei was annoying, and Yukari was weirdly clingy at times he knew now it was just another part of being friends.

Every other school he’d been passed around never really mattered to him. He knew by the end of the year another family would have taken him in and he’d move away again. The thought of making friends only to never see them again never sat well with him, so he just didn’t care. He didn’t care about life until moving to Iwatodai. So despite the fact they’d gone on a suicide mission nearly every night, during a time only he and a select few other people knew about, he guessed it was worth it. It was worth not killing Ryoji...not that he thought he could never do it in the first place.

“Why are you smiling?” Aigis asked. He guessed he never noticed he was. Perhaps it was the feeling of nostalgia thinking back on the year. Or maybe it was because the battle was done.

“The view up here is so pretty, and the wind feels so nice. We picked a nice spot to meet with our friends didn’t we?” she continued. “This’ll be my first time experiencing spring.”

His eyes felt heavy. Despite it all, he tried to keep himself awake. He was sure the rest of them would remember soon, and they’d be together again. As the field Leader he had faith in them. Somehow, he believed they may be running up those stairs to meet them at that very moment.

“I think after our final battle, I finally understand. What it means to be alive, and what my purpose in this life is. The reason I always wanted to be by your side was because of the being I sealed inside you 10 years ago, but now I want to use my power to protect everyone. Will you let me remain by your side?” Aigis asked.

He nodded, fighting back a yawn he was almost certain Aigis noticed. She smiled gently at him, patting the concrete space between them. “You must be tired, you should get some rest. Our friends will be here soon.”

Without any protest from his body, he lay down resting his head in Aigis’s lap. The gentle sunlight felt warm on his body, warmer than the sun in early spring usually felt. It was nice, albeit a little uncomfortable he was resting on a pair of titanium legs. He still felt a little sleepy. Ever so faintly he could hear people’s voices echoing through the stairway.

“I promise I’ll always be by your side, protecting you.” she whispered.

His vision began to blur. He was definitely more tired than he realized. Aigis’s wavering voice begun to sound more and more distant than before. She was singing something to him, a song he vaguely recognized that his sister once  _ demanded _ he listen to before they went their separate ways last March. He didn’t want to interrupt Aigis like this, and hoped maybe she would pass on his message to Minako. How he was sorry for being a ‘stinky butt’ of a brother and should have probably visited her more.

He was even sleepier than before...

The rooftop doors creaked open, and the voices of various other members of their club flooded through the rooftop. Before his eyes finally closed, he caught a glimpse of something white and fluffy excitedly running towards them. Koromaru had always been such a good boy, maybe one day…

On March 5th 2010, a boy went to sleep who would never wake up again.

-

In an unknown year in an unknown place, another boy woke up. His heart thundered in his chest, trying to grasp what in the  _ world _ he just witnessed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter we bring you back to your regularly scheduled Medium Wind content...maybe


End file.
